# Research reveals that male shopping habits are based on man’s ancestral hunting techniques, with 70% of men fitting the ‘hunter’ profile – they shop swiftly, quietly and in solitude, to track down specific and valuable items [1]
# Average ‘hunter’ male sees shopping as a way of collecting belongings that assert wealth, dominance and social status, all of which were once necessary for survival [1]
# Today’s Mr. Average is 5’10, weighs 79.8kgs and earns £28,270 a year. He will spend £570 a year on designer clothes, £1,144 on beer, over £2,000 shopping online and £2,189 on gadgets annually [2]
# In his lifetime, the average British man will spend a total of 10,585 hours in the pub, will say sorry 1.9 million times, spend 11 years in front of the TV and will have learnt to cook just four meals

Britain’s 21st century Mr. Average measures 5’10, weighs 79.8kgs and earns £28,270 a year. Among other things in his lifetime, the average British man will sleep with nine partners, spend a total of 441 days in the pub, say sorry 1.9 million times, spend 11 years in front of the TV, waste one month looking for lost socks and will have learnt to cook just four meals. When it comes to his behavioural traits in relation to shopping, 70% of men fit the ‘hunter’ profile, with the average ‘hunter’ male seeing shopping as a way of collecting belongings that assert wealth, dominance and social status – all of which were once necessary for survival [2].

Although men are increasingly involved in the shopping experience, women are still the primary purchasers in most households, and tend to do approximately 80% of the household shopping. According to a theory that accounts for gender differences in consumer behaviour, rooted in evolutionary psychology, women shop to attract a mate, while men see shopping as a mission. Women view shopping expeditions as fun, social and enjoyable experiences, whereas for men shopping is a 21st century hunting exercise – they shop swiftly, quietly and generally in solitude. A man will typically be purpose-driven, and set on his mission to look for specific items. Although the ‘prey’ is now more likely to be a wireless gadget than a wild boar, men still have the instinct to track it down, go in for the kill and get it home as quickly as possible [1].

The desire to assert power and social status is today demonstrated through material items and the need to socialise, with the average man spending £2,189 a year on gadgets, £2,001 on online purchases, £1,114 on beer, £570 on designer clothes, and £417 eating out. While these modern objects do not hold any innate reward value as such, research has shown that they activate the neural structures of the reward circuitry in the brain in the same way as our survival related objects of the past (food) [2].

Women, on the other hand, see shopping as a leisure pursuit and spend an average of 8.5 years of their life shopping. As the primary purchasers in most households, 8 in 10 women fit the traditional ‘gatherer’ profile – they have higher levels of intent to purchase, but are less secure in their purchasing decisions and spend more time browsing and researching choices. Women also tend to outnumber men by a factor of 2:1 in stores.